Pugnacious

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/

Definitions

  1. Inclined to engage in fighting or quarreling; combative and aggressive in nature or behavior
  2. Readily disposed toward combat and confrontation in disposition and conduct
  3. Naturally eager for argument and physical altercation in manner and temperament

Etymology: Inside every pugnacious person, etymologically speaking, is a clenched hand. The Latin "pugnus" meant "fist", and Latin built much of its vocabulary of fighting on it. From "pugnus" came the verb "pugnare", to fight: at root, fighting with the fists. From "pugnare" Latin made "pugnax", using the suffix "-ax", which marks a habit or tendency, the same one found in "audax", bold, and "tenax", holding fast. A "pugnax" man did not merely fight; he was inclined to, fond of it. English scholars took the stem "pugnaci-", added the adjective ending "-ous", and had the word by the 1640s. It was a learned borrowing straight from Latin, not something worn smooth by centuries of French. Once you know the fist is there, it turns up all over English. "Pugnare" with prefixes gave "impugn", to fight against a claim, and "repugnant", which first meant resisting or contrary and only later came to mean disgusting. "Pugil", the Latin boxer, gave pugilist. French wore "pugnus" down to "poing", and a "poignard" was a fist-dagger, which English turned into poniard. Further back lies a Proto-Indo-European root, "*pewǵ-", to punch, poke or prick. Latin "pungere", to prick, probably shares it, which would make pungent and puncture distant cousins of the boxer's fist. Greek built "pygmē", fist, on the same base. "Pygmē" also named a measure of length, from the elbow to the knuckles. "Pygmaios", as tall as a "pygmē", hence dwarfish, gave English the word pygmy. The first pygmies were imaginary: in the Iliad, Homer describes cranes flying south from the winter and bringing slaughter to a race of tiny men, the "Pygmaioi".

Synonyms: aggressive, combative, belligerent, hostile, quarrelsome

Antonyms: peaceful, amicable, friendly, cooperative, gentle